UK government to ban e-cigarettes for under-18s

VAPING will soon be out for kids in the UK: plans to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to under-18s were announced last week by the government. The UK joins the 26 US states that have banned sales to minors on the basis that using e-cigarettes, or "vaping", might tempt them to try smoking.

E-cigarettes dispense nicotine as a vapour, but are safer than cigarettes because they don't contain the other harmful substances found in tobacco. But fears remain that young people could become addicted to the nicotine, and that vaping could de-stigmatise smoking. "It makes sense to restrict the availability of a potentially addictive product," says Martin Dockrell of anti-smoking lobby group ASH.

Meanwhile, European Union regulators were accused last week of drafting a scientifically unjustifiable law to limit the nicotine content of e-cigarettes. The limits are too strict, say a group of scientists in a letter to the EU health commissioner, so people using e-cigarettes to quit might return to real cigarettes.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Under-18 e-cig ban"

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